--A building was evacuated today in Worcester after employees became sick due to what was apparently carbon monoxide poisoning. [Worcester Telegram & Gazette] --Paul Shanley, a former priest who was convicted for molesting a boy during the church sex scandal and who is now doing time, wants a new trial. [Boston Herald] --A blaze in Cambridge yesterday resulted in a fireball and left an officer and firefighter "slightly injured." [Cambridge Chronicle] --A victory for......

Unofficial leaked lists started hitting the Internet late this morning. Fearful and optimistic at the same time, we started scanning them to see who was allegedly going to be on the MLB Steroid Commission's "Naughty" list. But then the 400-page PDF report arrived in our browser, and some of the worst rumors turned out to be just rumors. The most popular list circulating this morning named Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon and Julian Tavarez. None of......

The details leaked to the media were changing by what felt like the minute today (or, as on-air talent at WEEI noted, "It's changing from one commercial break to the next!"), but now it's official: Curt Schillling is back for one more season with the Red Sox, a move that will likely end his baseball career here in Boston. "I’ve already heard from Josh and Wake, and am excited to know that my last year......

Let's give a hand, ladies and gentlemen, and perhaps even raise our Saturday morning coffee cups in a toast. To the new Celtics and basketball's new Big Three! Before we dive into Friday night's Celts season opener, we should take a quick trip back to May 22, when Boston gasped in horror over the hand fate had dealt. Fifth pick for what was then a terrible, wretched team. We were screwed. Ready to jump. Inconsolable.......

They rode before us on Duck Boats and flat-bed trucks, with microphones and punk bands, flags and signs. Some came with camcorders, others with disposable cameras. Your 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox lineup consisted of a group of men united under a team name and cause, but let's face it: we had one really eclectic bunch of characters. Tuesday's Rolling Rally celebration gave the fans quick opportunities to see just how different the guys......

We can second-guess or backseat coach all we want. Should Beckett have started Tuesday night's game instead of Tim Wakefield? Should Jacoby Ellsbury have started in the outfield for J.D. Drew or Coco Crisp? Should Doug Mirabelli have been replaced by Jason Varitek the moment Wakefield left the game? Should Julian Tavarez be on the pitching roster in these ALCS games? But that will only madden Red Sox fans and distract them from the reality......

Maybe someday, when all this is over, we'll sit down with (or maybe without) Terry Francona and we'll all have a good laugh out of all of this. Because when it became obvious that Curt Schilling didn't have it (and he was OK, but clearly didn't have his A game, or even the B+ game he's been getting by with), maybe a different manager would have gone to Jon Lester, or Julian Tavarez (whoops! he's......

Forget for a moment the questions still lingering around the Red Sox. We know about those. Let's take a brief look at the angst-ridden article in today's LA Times about the myriad questions swirling around our first-round opponents, the AnaheimOrWhatever Angels. They don't know who's starting when (OK, neither do we). Two of their key sluggers, Vlad Guerrero and Gary Matthews, are nursing injuries and may not be 100% (hey, just like Manny!). Will their......

In between the drama of a pennant race and the pressure cooker of the playoffs, comes a day like today. A day when absolutely nothing is up for grabs. Yesterday the Red Sox won and the Indians lost, guaranteeing the Red Sox the best record in the AL (they'd win a tiebreaker with Cleveland) and Fenway-advantage throughout the postseason. The win yesterday (you might want to sit down) came largely thanks to J.D. Drew, who......

Yeah, baby! We all know that the Red Sox should be thumping the Devil Rays, but it's hard to argue with two consecutive hard-fought, come-from-behind wins from a lineup that's been painful to watch for stretches this season. Last night, the Sox surrendered four early runs to Tampa Bay, with starter Jon Lester throwing 65,431 pitches and only making into the fourth inning. Rays starter Edwin Jackson, looking like a Cy Young candidate (the Sox......

Technical difficulties plagued yesterday's Redux. We'll cover both weekend games here. Sorry. Not since Mrs. O'Leary's cow had its legendary bout with Restless Legs Syndrome has Chicago been so utterly and completely flattened. But this time it wasn't fire, but the relentless bats of the Red Sox, woken from their August slumber, who pounded the Pale Hose into a pinstriped pulp. (We miss a day, we lay it on a little thick the next day.......

It was a virtual tie trying to pick which movie we were going to use today to compare the Red Sox to. All About Eve, with its famous line, "Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy night", got the nod over Deep Impact, which we considered because of all those scenes where President Morgan Freeman has to address the nation and tell everyone that the nukes and the missiles have failed, and the......

There are days when the Red Sox remind us of the Justice League of America - that inspired creation of D.C. Comics where a number of their best superheroes ally to use their unique talents, banding together to fight evil. Sunday was one of those days. Not that the Angels are evil, per se, but they clearly represented a menace to all that is good and just, or at least to the Red Sox' division-title......

You had to be made of stone, or the world's most jaded individual, to watch yesterday's Celtics press conference and not believe that things are going to change 'round here in a hurry. New Celtic Kevin Garnett, along with veteran Paul Pierce and fairly new Celtic Ray Allen, told the media and the world that he's happy to be here, he's thrilled to be with two veterans and All-Stars, and he's a Red Sox fan......

Two previous games, two total runs. Thursday night, runs were scoring every time you turned around. 14-9 Red Sox. Such is baseball. Recapping all the runs chronologically would take forever, so let's look at a few highlights. Like Manny Ramirez: Two home runs, including a bomb in the second that landed near Akron. Mike Lowell: three-for-five. And (sit down) Wily Mo Pena (!), who went 4-for-5 (!) with a 3-run home run that blew the......

And the lead is down to seven. The Red Sox have completely stopped getting any value out of the back end of the rotation. Wakefield got slapped around Tuesday, and last night, Julian Tavarez was pitching well until he ran into the Fifth Inning of Doom en route to a 6-5 loss to the lowly-unless-they're-playing-us KC Royals. Tavarez hasn't won in a month, and the SchillingWatch is on overdrive. The rejuvenated Manny homered, and Varitek......

The Red Sox rotation needs no introduction. We already have three ten-game winners, a potential Hall-of-Famer on the injured list, and warhorse Julian Tavarez on the back end. But, with possible apologies to Curt Schilling's one-hitter in Oakland, none of them have come up with a gem like youngster Kason Gabbard threw last night. The 25-year-old lefty threw the Sox' third complete game and second shutout last night, bedazzling the Royals to the tune of......

It was a scenario we've experienced so many times before that Sox fans couldn't help but smile in anticipation. Bottom of the ninth at Fenway Park. The tying and go-ahead run already on base. One out. David Ortiz striding to the plate to tip the balance on a 6-5 deficit. We're supposed to win those games, right? Despite the fact that the Red Sox had given up its lead to the Toronto Blue Jays, even......

Did the good vibrations work yesterday? Are the Red Sox going to start the second half with the take-no-prisoners attituted that got them through April and May? Well, last night was a good start. With a good performance by Tim Wakefield (pause for palpable sigh of relief) and the Sox' big sluggers looking active again, the Sox cruised to a 7-4 win over Toronto. Maybe "cruised" is overstating it a bit, since the Sox 5-1......

Today's Redux is going to be short and sweet - let's face it, there isn't a whole lot of good news to report from the first in the Red Sox three-game visit to Detroit. Friday night was just plain ugly, a 9-2 loss to the Tigers that served as the proverbial "other shoe" from Thursday's Devil Rays slaughter. After tearing up Fenway the night before, it seemed the Sox had nothing left to start off......

It's always a good sign when the only two elements of suspense to a ballgame are (1) will we get to the fifth inning before the rain comes, and (2) will the starting pitcher's arm get stiff from sitting in the dugout for a long time while his offense scores bunches of runs. Fortunately for the Sox last night, the answers were yes and no, respectively, as the Sox pummeled the Devil Rays to a......

After three innings last night, the mood at Fenway was as good as it gets. Josh Beckett was on the mound, and the Sox had staked him to a 4-0 lead. The team was hitting well, including superprospect Jacoby Ellsbury, who got his first major-league hit by zipping down the first-base line to beat the throw on a routine ground ball. The Sox even had a helper monkey named Ayla throw out the first pitch.......

And we thought the days of musical Red Sox pitchers were over when Bronson Arroyo got traded. But we can't wait for July 17, when pitching sensation Daisuke Matsuzaka will release his own mix CD, "Music From the Mound" with a collection of songs that inspire and touch the hurler, plus an original track or two. You may have heard one on Monday night, when NESN gave us a few seconds of "Gyro Ball", which......

Were we really worried last season that Josh Beckett wouldn't be able to cut it as a member of the Red Sox rotation? Were we really concerned about his history of injuries, his adjusting to the American League, his anything? Well, we're not worried now, brother. Beckett's 11-1, sailing along, and making the Padres (admittedly not an AL lineup, but still an NL power) look as docile as the critter pictured here. With all of......

The bewhiskered gent at right is General William Tecumseh Sherman, who split the South in two during the Civil War with his famous march through Georgia. Last night may not have been as deeply psychologically scarring for residents of the Peach State, but it was a pretty good whuppin' just the same. The Red Sox pounded the Braves 11-0, behind a slew of home runs and another great outing by the astounding Julian Tavarez. J.D.......

We'll get into the Red Sox victory over Atlanta in just a moment, but Curt Schilling just wrapped up his weekly phone call with WEEI, and Bostonist was struck by the decidedly different tone of voice we heard over the airwaves. Schilling's not sure about what's going on with his arm, and we're not sure about what's going on with our No. 1 starter - which means we're in the midst of an odd Wednesday......

If you said the Red Sox lineup would eventually break out of its funk, you weren't alone. If you said it would be J.D. Drew and Dustin Pedroia who did their "Bash Brothers" imitation and got the runs home, please forward us tonight's lottery numbers. Terry Francona's gambit of putting Drew and Pedroia 1-2 in the lineup paid off bigtime last night, as the two combined to go 8-for-9 with 8 RBIs in the 10-2......

All right, it wasn't exactly "Our hallowed snake-skull-cracking day", but there aren't too many opportunities to play the Diamondbacks and break out all the old snake jokes. What it was, was a tough game against a young pitcher pitching way above his head, and the Red Sox were fortunate to get out of it with a 10-inning, 4-3 win. Julian Tavarez pitched well, with a couple of mistakes, including giving Arizona's Stephen Drew a chance......

The Red Sox have been living large off of the Foes' inferior bullpens all season. Sadly, what goes around came around last night. The unstoppable Okajima and unbeatable Papelbon were respectively stopped and beaten by the Yankees, who took 2 out of 3 from the Sox for the second straight series. This one was a typical Sox-Yankees seesaw affair. Josh Beckett pitched well, but spotted the Yanks a 4-0 lead. But the Sox got it......

It's been said that tonight is going to feature the loudest and longest round of applause to hit Fenway in all of 2007. We disagree - we think it will happen either this weekend or in September, when Joe Torre comes to get Roger Clemens in the fourth inning - but tonight's going to be special. Tonight, the Sox welcome back Trot Nixon, stalwart of the 2004 Championship team and one of the core members......